Posted this somewhere else talking about Cloverfield but it will work here too, just ignore the names.
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I liked the movie but I didn't think it was really anything amazing and probably a movie I'll never watch again.
First off, I was all hyped about the mystery aspect of it. I keep seeing threads like this one with spoiler warnings or what is Cloverfield all over the place. I've been avoiding these threads hoping to not ruin anything but there's nothing to ruin. There are no spoilers because common sense will tell you the characters are going to die and you find nothing out about Cloverfield. This entire thread and ever Cloverfield spoiler thread tells you just as much as the movie and the movie tells you nothing.
Now, as for the telling me nothing, I'm not so worried about that. It's kind of cool that the movie focused on the survivors but I still would have liked to know something. Why did the girl randomly explode? Why did it matter that she got bit but not the other people traveling with her? Why didn't anyone notice a monster eating the Ferris Wheel at the end of the movie? I like some mystery in movies, especially ones like this, but I also like having some answers.
After that, I hated the characters in the movie. Actually, I really didn't hate them I just felt nothing for them and didn't really care when they died (except the boring chick that exploded but that's only because I wanted to know why she exploded). The first 20-30 minutes of the movie were a complete waste other than saving me from listening to people eat and drink during the good parts (saw it Studio Movie Grill).
Once the movie got going it wasn't terrible, though Ryan is right-- I thought I was watching Half-Life 2 and totally expected the Combine to come out and start beating on the characters. I did hate how this group of people managed to beat off the ant lion creatures with no weapons and then a second time with an ax and the military couldn't do it with freaking missiles, but I guess that's movies for you.
And actually thinking of video games, did anyone else think that they made this movie just to make a game spinoff? I don't know if it was because of the Half-Life 2 similarities but I could see a game where people are trying to get off the island and leaping from broken building to broken building. I'm not saying it would be a good game, just saying that's what the movie made me think.
The final part of the movie after the helicopter crash I wasn't a fan of, it really felt like they could have shaved some time off the movie so easy but they wanted a way just to show off the monster. Other than the part where the monster randomly decides to take a break from its night long rampage to stop and look at the twit with the camera so you could actually see it there was no other purpose.
The final thing that really bothered me about the movie was the part after the ending credits. We were all ready to get up and leave but one of the ushers told us to stay because there's something at the end of the credits. So we sit back down, wait through the insanely long credits (or maybe they just felt long because I had to go to the bathroom), and finally get to the end part where the someone says "It's still alive". And apparently they even said it backwards according to the usher because none of us could understand it since it was the only thing in the movie that was insanely loud.
Why even bother putting something stupid like that in the movie if it still doesn't answer anything and you can't even understand it? Oh, that's right, because apparently they want to make a sequel where they hopefully answer most of the things that should have even been hinted about in the first movie.
/end rant.
--Oh, and I want whatever video camera they taped the movie with. That thing had insane resolution and can apparently survive anything.
